Rewarding rubbish

If you went on holiday to Italy this year, you may have come back with a plate, a mug or a jug — an item or two of the painted pottery still handmade (at least sometimes) by craftsmen and women, mostly in Umbria, but also in the Marche, and which you can see in the shops in Siena and Florence and in other places in Tuscany.

If you went on holiday to Italy this year, you may have come back with a plate, a mug or a jug — an item or two of the painted pottery still handmade (at least sometimes) by craftsmen and women, mostly in Umbria, but also in the Marche, and which you can see in the shops in Siena and Florence and in other places in Tuscany.

There is a continuous tradition of manufacturing ceramics in Italy stretching back to the Middle Ages, and although almost completely forgotten today, at the end of the 19th century and in the opening years of the 20th, pre-Renaissance medieval pottery was highly sought after and very valuable. Looking at some of the examples that appeared in a recent exhibition organised by Professor Lucio Riccetti in Perugia and Orvieto in Umbria, you can understand why: the designs are simple and beautiful, with images that are primitive and powerful. The medieval artisans had a palette of two colours: green and brown. But they produced some extraordinary results with their limited resources.

Orvieto, the hilltop city in southern Umbria where the medieval popes had a summer residence (the papal palace — it looks more like a castle — still stands next to the cathedral), was a particularly important centre, and 120 years ago, medieval pottery from there was in high demand.